Green Card Received

[Minister]

Hello everyone! I wanted to share the news with all of you about my wife's recent change in status. I also wanted to report about the one challenge that we had in the immigration paperwork in hopes that others will be able to overcome it if/when they encounter it.

 

I know that I haven't been posting here very often, but I have continued to be a regular reader and I thank everyone for sharing their stories and troubles. These discussions offer me a lot of insight into the heart and mind of a Chinese girl and help me to be a better husband. They also let me see that other people are encountering the same bumps that we are and it helps to remind me that neither she nor I are crazy, just different.

 

Ok, well... I still think she's crazy, but not as crazy as I would have thought otherwise... (-_^) (I'm sure she thinks the same thing about me!)

 

Anyway, our Green Card arrived without any request for an interview. It seems we may escape that challenge until the "removal of conditional status" green card change. I think this is fine because that gives us another two years to fret about possible interview questions...

 

What if he asks me about your favorite way to eat asparagus? What should I say???

 

Anyway, about our challenging "RFE" from the USCIS; We received a letter saying that several documents were missing from my wife's medical packet. I must provide them by 7-6-08 or someone was going to be on a slow boat back to Shenyang.

 

I assumed that these were documents that should have been in the big brown sealed envelope that my wife gave to the immigration officer upon arrival. I figured that, if she didn't have them in that package, then someone must have forgotten to include them in China and that, as this was a sealed envelope that we couldn't touch, this couldn't be considered my wife's mistake or held against her. I also remembered in the I-485 instruction package that women arriving on a K1 visa do not need to send a medical packet. They just need to send a copy of their vaccination form.

 

I called the USCIS to ask about this. They were kind and helpful and told me, "No problem. Just write us a letter explaining this and send us what you can. The important thing is that you respond in a timely manner. This is what keeps your case open."

 

I sent a letter explaining the situation.

 

They sent a letter back saying that I now had until June 26 to provide the information or that slow boat was going to leave for China with one extra passenger.

 

At this point, I figured that there was nothing to do but get another medical exam and a new set of medical forms. The doctor was kind, but we did have one issue. My wife tested positive for TB exposure. Note: She does not have tuberculosis, but she has been exposed to it somewhere in China and has antibodies for it in her blood. The doctor needed to confirm the test result with an X-Ray which caused a little delay in our paperwork. We offered to show him her X-Ray from her first exam in China, but he wanted to take his own.

 

After checking this and fully confirming her TB-Negative status, the doctor provided us with a full medical packet. We shipped it off to the USCIS by certified mail. For some reason, it didn't arrive in three days like they thought it would at the Post Office. It arrived two weeks later and we almost missed the submission date! But luck was on our side and the documents arrived two days before the deadline.

 

On July 2, I checked the USCIS website on a whim and saw that she was approved! We received the card yesterday.

 

As always, thank you, everyone, for your good advice and for sharing your good and bad times. Wish us luck for the next steps. We wish all of you luck as well.

http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/8783/dsc02670yt2.jpg

Edited July 8, 2008 by Minister (see edit history)

[Guest Mike and Lily]

Congratulations! Enjoy life without the government for the next 21 months!

[Dennis143]

We all know that USCIS is a big, cranky, Rube Goldberg machine that kicks, sputters, spews and sometimes needs to be kick-started.

 

Congratulations on getting through it with only heartburn and not heartache.

 

[IllinoisDave]

Congrats on the GC. Sorry to hear about the hassle.

[amerchin]

Congrats over another hurdle!

[yuliki]

congratulations!!